Some people will embarrass themselves and not care because they admit that they’re wrong.

In this story, one woman shares how a customer kept repeating the wrong number and made a scene about it. She tried to explain the problem and the solution, but the customer wouldn’t believe her. That’s when she had an idea that finally worked.

Check out the full story.

“Sir, that’s not a zero” and other things I didn’t think I’d have to say out loud at work

I work at a mid-sized retail chain that sells a bit of everything, but the front end is mostly returns, online pickups, and people insisting the app is “broken” because they can’t remember their own password.

This happened last weekend during the after-lunch rush when the line is long and everyone is already annoyed at the concept of waiting.

She knew this wouldn’t end well…

A guy in his 50s comes up with a small box of fancy printer ink and slaps it on the counter like it personally offended him.

He says he needs a refund because “it doesn’t fit,” and when I ask for the receipt he proudly holds up his phone with a screenshot and says, “I have the code.”

Cool, no problem, except the screenshot is a blurry zoom of an order number where half the characters are cut off.

I ask if he can pull up the full email so I can scan the barcode, and he gets this wounded look like I’ve asked him to solve a math problem.

UH OH…

He starts reading the number to me, very slowly, like I’m the one struggling. It’s something like 8O1O7B, but he keeps saying “eight zero one zero seven bee.”

I repeat it back and ask, “Is that an O or a zero?”

And he snaps, “It’s a zero, obviously. It’s a number.”

It doesn’t work.

I try it, system says invalid. I try it again, same.

He leans closer and says, louder, “ZERO. Like 0. Not a letter. Why would it be a letter.”

The line behind him is doing that shuffle where people pretend they aren’t listening but they are, totally.

I keep my voice calm and say, “Sometimes order codes have letters, can you tap the order and show me the barcode?”

He sighs like I’m wasting his valuable time, then scrolls dramatically and shows me the same screenshot again, just bigger now.

He would simply not accept his mistake!

That’s when I see it clearly: it’s not a zero, it’s the letter O, twice, and the font just makes it look round.

I point at it and say, as gently as I can, “I think those are O’s, not zeros.”

He goes red and says, “No. I typed it. I know what I typed.”

Time to let the customer take over.

So I do the only thing that works with this type of customer. I turn my screen slightly and say, “Okay, can you type it in for me then?”

I hand him the scanner keyboard and he pecks at it like it’s contaminated, still muttering.

He types 80107B with zeros, hits enter, invalid.

He stares at it, then at me, then at his phone like it betrayed him. I don’t say anything, I just wait, because sometimes silence is the safest customer service tool.

That sounds annoying!

He squints at his screenshot again, and I watch his brain do the slow, painful recalculation. Finally he says, very quietly, “Fine. Put O.”

I type it with O’s, it pulls up instantly, and of course the return goes through.

Instead of being relieved, he pivots straight into blaming our system, saying we should “make it clearer” and “not use confusing fonts” because it’s “basically a trick.”

I just nodded and said, “I’ll pass that along,” because what else do you do. When I handed him the refund slip he snatched it and then, right before walking away, he said, not looking at me, “You could’ve told me sooner.”

But he did!

Like I didn’t try.

Like I wasn’t telling him the entire time.

The next person in line stepped up and whispered, “For what it’s worth, it was totally an O,” and I laughed a little harder than I meant to.

YIKES! That was funny!

Why would the customer deny a small mistake?!

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this one.

This user gives this customer a simple benefit of doubt here!

This user has found a cheat code to write zeroes!

This user thinks this sounds like the corporate’s fault!

This user knows OP taught the customer a valuable lesson!

This user has a suggestion for some letters!

Teaching the customer a lesson, it better than fixing the problem on your own.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.